Thursday, January 14, 2010

Barefoot Bloggers: Indonesian Ginger Chicken




Well this is exciting! When I first started participating with the Barefoot Bloggers over a year ago I think I was a little over a hundred on the list of bloggers and I thought it would be several years before it was my turn to pick a recipe. For one reason or another people drop out and I am now number 27 of the 114 bloggers in Barefoot Bloggers. That makes it my turn to pick the recipe this month.

I was just talking to a buddy of mine a few weeks ago and he told me that he follows my blog but has never made anything since it all takes too many ingredients. I don't totally agree with that since I know that there have been several recipes that did not have many ingredients, I do know that there have been a fair share of recipes with a lot of ingredients and some hard to find ingredients. That brings me to my pick. I picked Indonesian Ginger Chicken because it looked like it would be good, easy to make, and because it had only five ingredients. So to my buddy - you better make this one - I know they have all this stuff in Switzerland or wherever you live now.

So I just got done saying how easy this recipe looked. I think I was a little overconfident but I tried to make this one twice before today. Last week I was all ready to make it but didn't read the recipe until the day I needed to make it and discovered that it needed to be marinated overnight. Next I decided to make it on this past Monday so thawed my chicken and was ready to make it and discovered that I neglected to buy ginger - who knew I would need ginger for Indonesian Ginger Chicken. That pushed my schedule to today - I almost was late on my own recipe pick.

With all that out of the way it really is easy to make. Takes about 5 minutes prep the night before to prepare the marinade. It marinates in the pan you cook it in so you just pop it in the oven an hour before you need it - flip it half way through and you are done. The chicken looked beautiful - shiny dark skin. It tasted just as good. The skin was crispy and flavored nice with the honey and ginger. I saw a few comments from people that thought some hot pepper flakes or something might have been a nice addition and I agree with them. I think it could have used a little salt too - an unusual thing to need in a Barefoot Contessa recipe.

Indonesian Ginger Chicken
Serves 4 to 6

Ingredients
  • 1 cup honey
  • 3/4 cup soy sauce
  • 1/4 cup minced garlic (8 to 12 cloves)
  • 1/2 cup peeled and grated fresh ginger root
  • 2 (3 1/2 pound) chickens, quartered, with backs removed
Directions
  1. Cook the honey, soy sauce, garlic, and ginger root in a small saucepan over low heat until the honey is melted. Arrange the chicken in 1 layer in a shallow baking pan, skin side down, and pour on the sauce. Cover the pan tightly with aluminum foil. Marinate overnight in the refrigerator.
  2. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.
  3. Place the baking pan in the oven and bake for 30 minutes. Uncover the pan, turn the chicken skin side up, and raise the temperature to 375 degrees F. Continue baking for 30 minutes or until the juices run clear when you cut between a leg and thigh and the sauce is a rich, dark brown.

11 comments:

kimberly said...

Great pick, Todd! We enjoyed this dish.

Summer said...

Thanks for the great pick! I loved this recipe. I didn't read the recipe first either so I only marinated it a few hours, but it was still delicious and full of flavor.

Penny said...

This was a good choice Todd. Ina has lots of recipes that are this easy. Your chicken looks perfect.

Trish said...

Wow, this looks delish and you are right, simple with 'at hand' ingredients!

Eva said...

Thanks for the pick. I thought the recipe was pretty good. I would go for Thai chili sauce to add a kick to it. Or maybe cut back on the honey and add sweet chili sauce.

Tonya @ What's On My Plate said...

A great pick! I don't even love chicken and I enjoyed this.

Ann said...

Thanks for the great choice! This was a snap to put together. I didn't use a whole chicken, and your presentation looks much better - next time, i'm going to use the whole chicken. and THANK YOU for noticing the salt! I was surprised too, and thought it was because I had used reduced sodium soy sauce!

Todd M said...

Yes Ann - I was thinking about that after and I think the reduced sodium soy sauce might have been the issue there - I am sure regular soy sauce would make it salty enough.

Karine said...

That is a great way to cook chicken. Great choice!

Jennifer said...

Thanks for this pick. It was amazing and I have made it at least twice now.

Peggy said...

Yours looks amazing. Mine did not brown right. It still tasted good, but just did not brown. Thanks for picking this. Loved trying new chicken recipes!